Dive Brief:
- Comcast customers experienced widespread internet issues across the U.S. on Monday, according an outage map on Down Detector. The outages were highly saturated around major cities including San Francisco, Denver and Boston.
- A "configuration error" caused the outage, though technicians restored service in approximately 90 minutes, according to a Level3 statement provided to CIO Dive. Internet connection was disrupted for customers with IP-based services
UPDATE: our teams continue to monitor an external network issue. We apologize for the inconvenience & will provide updates as we learn more.
— ComcastCares (@comcastcares) November 6, 2017
- TV and phone services were reportedly unfazed by the outage, which began around 1 p.m. ET on Monday, reports The Verge. The outage was resolved around 3:40 p.m., according to a company Tweet.
Internet issues should now be resolved for almost all customers. We apologize for the inconvenience & thank you for your patience.
— ComcastCares (@comcastcares) November 6, 2017
Dive Insight:
Sometimes a widespread internet outage is just that: an internet issue.
Comcast is one the largest ISPs alongside AT&T, Verizon and Spectrum. Though the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is working to put the power back into the hands of ISPs, many protest their ability to potentially restrict access to certain websites.
Companies can stand to lose revenue from an ongoing outage and a stall in employee productivity. An employee faces losing up to a week's worth of work waiting on internet access.
The internet is an invaluable part of modern business and its shorcomings impact industry-wide workloads. The U.S.'s economic growth would also increase 0.3% if the internet was twice as fast. If the U.S. had increased its broadband speed in 2009, an additional $350 billion would have been added to the economy annually.
